"I think John Paul has forgiven them. I think we have to do the same," Auxiliary Bishop Giovanni D’Ercole of L'Aquila

by CNA/EWTN News | Source: www.catholicnewsagency.com

Rome, Italy, Jan 31, 2014 (CNA/EWTN
News)

An Italian bishop has voiced forgiveness
for those responsible for stealing a relic of the blood of Blessed Pope John Paul II, soon after
police announced the relic's recovery.

"I think John Paul has
forgiven them. I think we have to do the same," Auxiliary Bishop Giovanni D'Ercole of L'Aquila said
a Jan. 31 press conference.

The relic is a small
square-shaped piece of cloth of John Paul II's cassock soaked in the blood from the 1981
assassination attempt on the Pope's life. There are only three like it.

The relic was discovered missing early on the morning of Jan. 26,
when a church custodian found a broken window at the Church of San Pietro della Ienca in the
mountainous region of Abruzzo. She called the police, who discovered that the reliquary was missing,
along with a small, simple cross.

Three men were arrested in
connection with the relic's theft. According to Reuters, the cloth was found in the garage of two of
the men, and was pieced back together. The fabric is still missing a few cloth filaments and a gold
thread, the bishop said.

Police had recovered the cross and
reliquary the day before, but the relic was not found until later.

Police sources told ANSA news agency that the men "did not
understand the relic's value" and initially did not remember where they allegedly threw it
away.

Authorities had initially speculated that the crime
could have been linked to a satanic cult. The rest of the church and offering box had been left
untouched; only the relic was stolen.

Two of the three men
arrested were described as drug addicts aged 23 and 24 and already known to the police, the British
newspaper The Daily Mail reports.

Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz,
the Pope's personal secretary, had given the relic to the people of L'Aquila in 2011 in response to
the devastating earthquake in the region.

The late Pope skied
in the area and visited more than 100 times during his papacy. He also was a regular visitor to the
small church.

John Paul II died in 2005. He will be canonized
on April 27, alongside Pope John XXIII.

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